London-based graphic designer Charlie Newhouse enjoys working on a variety of projects and his portfolio consists of posters, books, catalogues and exhibition design. “A lot of my work stems from printed matter, so I think the majority of my style is aided through that specific process,” Charlie explains. “I’m influenced by what’s around me and what is relevant to the project itself. I try to be visually engaging – the more unrestricted, the more intriguing the end result.”

Typography is becoming more of a dominant feature in Charlie’s work and he’s embracing the possibilities. “The role it has within my work is also relatively new in some ways as I only really got into it at university, so I am by no means a master at it!” Recent projects of Charlie’s include an artist’s book for Geoff Butcher, posters for various cities and towns including Whitstable and Copenhagen, and a book about constructing objects from “modest materials”.

Clean and minimally designed, Charlie’s approach to his work is matter of fact and functional, and it’s only in his poster work where we see a slightly looser way of working. His personal projects have also provided more opportunities to experiment: “Whether they get released into the world I never know but there is something exciting in that process,” says Charlie. “Some of my most recent work has been submission-based, self-initiated work that’s been published in Crack magazine and as part of Erik Brandt’s Fictions Typograpfika project.”

As a freelance designer some of the main challenges are staying motivated and restrictions on time, and also accepting when an idea doesn’t always go the way you planned, he says. “I am challenged through the mistakes I make in my work and I am looking to refine these quirks into dynamic ones. Using type and image to create distinctive imagery and using refined layouts to nurture my love for books,” explains Charlie. “The work I create has an element of play. Playing materialises a sense of original content, and also a sense of enjoyment to the creation of work. That notion of creating mistakes and experimenting to points where you are unsure of the direction, tends to end up being some of the best work I produce.”

Every month, ten people descend upon a basement studio in Dublin’s historic Merrion Square. The streets are lined with grand Georgian houses and pristine iron gates protect a well-kept public park. Each person is there to attend a two-day workshop organised by a tenaciously talented Welsh woman in order to learn how to make film props.

Earlier this year fashion icon Alexa Chung had her many fans reeling with the news of her own label. The campaign saw the model, muse, presenter and writer put her trend-spotting taste to use in creating her own collection. Such an exciting move from Alexa had to look slick and playful in every aspect, from the clothes to the branding, which was created by Studio Frith.

“‘Does it have to be readable?’ is a main theme in a lot of my work,” says Icelandic-born and Berlin-based graphic designer Greta Thorkels. This approach to design isn’t a usual one, but by turning design on its head Greta is carving her own eclectic graphic path.

Afrika is a design studio based in Switzerland, founded by Florian Jakober and Michael Zehnder. The studio works on a variety of projects, most recently finding itself designing custom typefaces for other studios and agencies. “It’s nice to have clients that understand as much about typography as we do. This way of working also allows us to work in bigger teams and learn a lot from everybody,” says Afrika.

If you go down to Highgate Woods in London today, you might be in for a bit of a surprise. Among the dog walkers, the frazzled parents searching for their kids and the forestry workers making sure that the ancient woodland is being preserved, you might, if you look carefully, find one of the most prolific artists and illustrators working in the UK. Highgate Woods, all 28 hectares of it, is Noma Bar’s ‘office’. Everyday, come rain or shine, the graphic artist is there, somewhere, armed with his notebooks and pens, working through ideas that will appear in their final forms in newspapers, magazines, as part of a campaign or a gallery.

Inspired by “wrong” design and a fondness for “flaws and errors”, aptly named Wrong Studio has been championing well-executed typography and graphic expertise by adding a twist of their own signature style. The studio was founded in 2013 by two colleagues, Andreas Peitersen and Jess Andersen, who decided it was time to steer things in a more personal direction. Since its launch, the duo have dabbled in various projects with a close-knit and collaborative ethos. We spoke to Andreas to find out more about some of its most studio-defining projects.